On Friday, the 6th year of the Lockerbie Jazz Festival kicked off in style with a live video conference to Primary 6 kids (aged 10) in Lockerbie Academy. The children took part in a live interactive video conference link with musicians from the Manhattan School of Music, New York. The presentation, entitled ‘Journey through Jazz’ introduced the kids to jazz styles in a fun, stimulating, engaging and fun session. Cutting edge technology, brilliant musicianship, great learning environment – cool way to kick off the Lockerbie Jazz Festival!
In Dumfries & Galloway Council, South West Scotland, we’ve been using video conferencing in primary and secondary schools to provide a range of educational opportunities for students and teachers. Since 2005, when we installed video conference kit in 5 schools, we’ve developed the use of the technology to support schools in outlying rural areas. The manufacturer of this equipment, Polycom, asked me in August 2011 to share our experience of using video conferencing in schools. Don’t watch alone.
Dumfries & Galloway Education Service is known throughout the UK (and certain other parts of the world) to have pioneered a music learning & teaching programme for school students (aged 9-18) over the medium of video conferencing. In November 2005, Grant Golding was appointed as the UK’s first instrumental tutor to teach pupils in remote schools every week via video-link. Some of the schools Grant teaches in, he has never personally visited. The quality we now have with Polycom HD video conference systems is such that it is possible to teach young people from around the age of 9, lessons in a range of orchestral instruments. Today Grant was giving lessons to groups of pupils in a range of schools from a room in Lochside Education Centre, Dumfries. The pictures seen here show the on-screen detail possible. Via a remote control handset, the tutor has control of the camera at both locations, near and far. Grant has zoomed in on a student’s trumpet and hand position and can give detailed instruction to the student as if he was standing beside him. These images were captured today as Grant delivered his lesson to students in Kelloholm Primary School, around 30 miles north of Dumfries. Lessons are delivered in Dumfries & Galloway schools most days of the week by this method, allowing young people in remote schools access to instrumental lessons. This technology is now capable of allowing tutors to deliver lessons over high quality, reliable and cost effective broadband video conference systems.
I very much enjoyed my visit last Tuesday to the International School of the Algarve, the largest private school in the south of Portugal. The school offers teaching at all levels (3-18) through a National Section (following the Portuguese Ministry of Education programme) and an International Section (following a modified English National Curriculum).
Headmaster John Butterworth gave me a very warm welcome and took me on a tour around the school. Pupils and staff I met were very friendly and it was really interesting to see the young people engaged in their lessons across the school.
I had a chat with John about a range of education topics from staff development to ICT issues. I shared with him our work in Dumfries & Galloway through the application of video conferencing for pupil lessons and staff development. We had an interesting chat around the possibilities of establishing a link with his school to some of our schools back in the UK. I hope to keep in touch with John and possibly establish a collaborative project with teachers and/or pupils in the school, which helpfully, is on the same timeline as the UK for much of the year.
Minus temperatures back in the UK this week; but the weather here in Portugal has been beautiful!
On Monday 2nd August I was delighted to pay a visit to the Polycom Office in Beijing where Hattie Tong very kindly gave me a full tour of the facilities. Teachers and students in Dumfries & Galloway schools in Scotland have found our Polycom video conference systems easy to use and very effective for learning and teaching.
I had a great chat with Hattie over a cup of coffee. And thanks Hattie, for taking these pictures!
I’m looking forward to taking part on Friday 28th May as a seminar panel member over video-link at the 2010 International Conference on Multidisciplinary Research in Music Pedagogy at Ottawa University. I’ll be participating in the symposium entitled ‘Technology: Electronic Technology and its Transformative Role in Music Teaching and Learning’.
The attached you tube link features a chat I had with Stephen Heppell following a lesson we observed with young people receiving instrumental brass lessons via video link.
The links below may be of interest to delegates at the Ottawa Conference. The first link below provides an executive summary of Warwick University’s evaluation of our video teaching programme.
Posted by upbeat | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on March 24, 2010
Playing piano in Dumfries to an audience in Orlando (Nov. 2009)
I gave up blogging over a year ago, I doubt if anyone noticed – the world’s still turning and educational establishments are still open for business. Not one blog post in 2009, but after a YouTube skirmish last year with Stephen Heppell and Elliott Masie on Video Conferencing in schools, it’s now time to get on the blogging trail once more……….
Posted by upbeat | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on February 26, 2008
Met the 2 Ewans (McIntosh LTS & Mackenzie 3MRT) at the House of Commons Terrace Reception for a catch up on schools / video conferencing / digital learning. Highlighted Dumfries & Galloway video conferencing developments in our rurally isolated primary and secondary schools. Discussed possibility with Ewan 3MRT of ‘video conferencing’ projections onto Smart / Promethean boards through IP – problem of lack of good full screen quality may lie in camera capability resulting in low resolution images. Potentially though, Ewan of the opinion that good quality VC could be achieved through PC / projector. Also good to talk with Ewan LTS, who now takes the credit / blame for this particular blog. Looking forward to increased engagement with Ewan and others at LTS on wider opportunities / links / developments for schools through video conferencing.
Met with Eric Joyce MP, keen advocate for learning through ICT. Peter van Gelder (Westminster Forum) also interested to hear of innovative video conferencing work in Dumfries & Galloway. Colleagues in Dumfries & Galloway / Scotland / UK / the world – please get in touch if you’re interested in developing school links over VC.
Tweets by @alanhcameron
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On Friday, the 6th year of the Lockerbie Jazz Festival kicked off in style with a live video conference to Primary 6 kids (aged 10) in Lockerbie Academy. The children took part in a live interactive video conference link with musicians from the Manhattan School of Music, New York. The presentation, entitled ‘Journey through Jazz’ introduced the kids to jazz styles in a fun, stimulating, engaging and fun session. Cutting edge technology, brilliant musicianship, great learning environment – cool way to kick off the Lockerbie Jazz Festival!
